September 28th
Museum Tour II – Independence Hall 2nd Floor and Second Bank of the United States Portrait Gallery
In our visit to the Independence Hall 2nd Floor space – former site of the Peale Museum (1802-1826), and the Second Bank of the United States Portrait Gallery we were able to view the places, and portraiture relevant to Peale’s efforts at establishing his collection of Natural History. He claimed that his design was to “collect and preserve all the variety of animals and fossils that could be acquired, and exhibit these publicly”. (My Design In Forming This Museum –Charles Wilson Peale. 1792 Philadelphia Pa Broadside Collection, APS Library.) In doing so, he attempted to follow a system of Linnaean classification, citing the genus and species of each animal displayed up to and including Homo sapiens. The significance of Independence Hall as a desired location to house his collection seems to have been an obvious choice when viewed through the eye of Peale’s ambitions for his Museum to become known worldwide. The collection of portraits, representing wealthy and influential white men, serves to reveal another potential clue of his intention to secure financial backing for his endeavor. It seems suspiciously unlikely that a scientific man of Peale’s standing would abandon his adherence to a strict taxonomic method of classification when considering his inclusion of mankind into the order of the natural world. The question arises when faced with his choice of representation – ‘why not try to represent as wide of a variety of Homo sapiens as possible?’ Why didn’t Peale choose to make his portraits a display of the ethnographic differences and variation of the species? What all of the subjects seem to have had in common was a social standing equal to his own. He stated that his purpose was “in forming a collection of portraits of many of the persons who have been highly distinguished in their exertions, in the late glorious revolutions, and which I am desirous further to enlarge with such characters as you, gentlemen, may deem most proper to be placed in this Museum.” (italics are mine) It appears that in his desire to acquire government approval, and funding to achieve his desired goals, he was willing to pander to the people who were capable of offering him patronage. His statements, which were publicly given to a group of such worthies in attendance, include “But I am sorry that my circumstances or opportunities have not permitted me to add to this collection a number of portraits of other gentlemen of known merit.” I see this as a fairly obvious translation of his suggested intent. In other words, he was implying that if he had more time (i.e. Money) he would be happy to include portraits of the “gentlemen of known merit” that were assembled to hear his proposal. This unfortunate revelation of Peale to have been so openly manipulative may well have ultimately thwarted any of his efforts to gain the approval, and backing that he desired. It seems ironic that his collections were eventually liquidated, and fell into the hands of a more obvious purveyor of “curiousities” as P.T. Barnum, who was able to make a profit of them until they were destroyed by an act of God.
